Motivations

"Revenge kept me alive; I dared not die, and leave my adversary in being" (149).

Victor's motivations regarding the creature shift throughout the course of the novel. At first, the creation of the creature was meant to find a means to cure sickness and disease. He was prompted to pursue the creation of the monster due to his mother's death. He was also motivated by one of his professors and he had a natural thirst for knowledge. Next, after Victor realized he had made a irreversible mistake by creating the monster, he was motivated by fear. He ran away and retreated and became rather depressed. Later, while visiting the site of William's murder, he ran into the creature. At this point, Victor knew that the monster was responsible for the murder. After hearing the monster's story and his proposal for a monster mate, Victor became motivated by a different means. He agreed to create another creature for the monster because it would mean that he would flee and be eradicated from Victor's life if he did so. Wanting to end the horrible ideal, Victor worked on the creature's mate. However, Victor could not bring himself to bring to life yet another monster. The creature had already brought so much misery and destruction to his life that he could not bear to endure anymore.

The creature was angry at Victor's destruction of his female mate. He threatened to kill off the rest of Victor's friends and he did just so. After the death of Elizabeth, all of Victor's close friends had been killed by his wretched creation. He was finally motivated to seek revenge on the creature. Although he was weary and it was difficult to follow the creature's path, he was motivated by revenge--Revenge for all of the ruin the creature wreaked on Victor's life. He would kill the creature once and for all--or die trying.